In My Veins
by heckyeahbatfam
Summary: A collection of unrelated Spitfire oneshots, based around Wally and Artemis's journey from mutual hatred to... less hatred? Love?
1. Nothing Goes As Planned

**Nothing Goes As Planned**

* * *

"That's our guy, one over there in the black suit."

Artemis rolls her eyes.

"I know what Lex Luthor looks like, Wally. And this is a black tie event. _Everyone _is in a black suit."

"_You're_ not in a suit."

She's very aware that she is not in a suit, thank you very much. She is also aware that the only thing separating herself from Wally is a few inches of space and the flimsy material of her ridiculously fancy dress.

Not that she cares, of course. Just making an observation.

"You know what I mean," Wally huffs.

Artemis smirks in his face. "Of course I do, the two-syllable words in your  
vocabulary aren't exactly the Mona Lisa Code."  
He pinches her on the waist, hard, and she retaliates by stepping on his foot. The only reason she's tolerating his touch at all is because they're on a stupid reconnaissance mission at a _black tie event_, of all places, courtesy of Batman's specific instructions.

And apparently, shmancy hand-on-hip dancing was required for gathering information.

Batman had made it quite clear that they needed to blend in with the first class citizens at the party -i.e. fancy clothes, dancing, no outright violence toward each other, the whole nine yards. He had provided the clothes and tickets; they provided the violence (or lack thereof).

This was a purely reconnaissance mission; just to get a feel for Luthor's connections to the higher-ups.

Clearly, he had a lot of them.

If Artemis had it her way, she'd be at home, asleep- it was a school night!

But no.

She lapses into silence, recalling her earlier conversation –if vehement protests and angry glares counted as conversation- with the Batman himself about coming to this stupid fancy party.

Needless to say, the situation had been non-negotiable.

When she had complained to Kaldur, he had only revealed that Batman had chosen Artemis and Wally specifically because "he believes it is a good opportunity for you and Wally to work out your… differences."

"Can't I go with someone else?" Artemis had asked with a grimace, "Someone I don't want on the end of a very sharp object?"

"Yeah," Wally had chimed in, "I'm not going anywhere with her!"

_Smack._

"HEY!"

"No. For the good of the team, you must learn to put aside your differences and get along," had been the Atlantian's stoic response.

Artemis had known that there was no point in further argument, so with that she had stomped away, muttering angry things under her breath and hoping that a certain redheaded speedster would spontaneously combust before 9 p.m.

"_Are you even listening to me?"_ Wally asks, snapping his free hand in front of her face.

She waves it away, distractedly.

"Sorry, sorry. Please continue."

He pulls a face. I said, "I'm talking about the tan, dark-haired man with the grey hair on the sides. He's been talking to Luthor for most of the night. I think he's a businessman."

Artemis glances casually over his shoulder as they turn and start to dance in a  
different direction.  
"I see him. He's the owner of a major nuclear weapons supplier.'

Wally nods.

"Do you think you could look a little happier, Arty?" he remarks, after a pause, "I don't want to be here with you any more than you want to be here with me, but you look like borderline homicidal."

"Don't call me that. And it's not my fault- these shoes are killing me!"

"Take them off, then."

She laughs. "I wish," she groans, and plasters a smile on her face.

"This better?"

"Much."

They continue to dance, taking turns keeping tabs on the dark-haired man as he mingles with the upper-upper class people in their midst.

After a few minutes, Wally laughs out of the blue.  
Artemis raises an eyebrow, and he laughs again. "I'm having a serious Mr. & Mrs. Smith moment, here."

She snorts.

"Is this your way of asking me to be your work wife, or to threaten you with pain of death? 'Cause I can do both."

"With you, it would be pretty much the same thing," Wally quips, grinning.

Despite herself, she laughs.  
She can't resist pinching him on the arm, though. He asked for it.

"Nah," Wally drawls, "you're not _that _bad."

"It's only because I don't have my bow, Wall-man. I am still capable of inflicting unspeakable pain even without my bow. Don't think I'm going soft on you."

"Never," he says, struggling to wipe the smirk off his face.

"Still, that's a pretty great movie, though," Artemis muses, oh-so-casually, "especially the sex scene at the end."

Wally turns bright red.

"Artemis," he hisses, "_now is not the time_."

It's her turn to smirk.

"Yeah?" Artemis teases, "I can fix tha- mmph."

She peels Wally's fingers from covering her mouth.

"I was kidding!"

"I don't take chances with you," he grumbles.  
Artemis's face splits into a very Cheshire-like grin.

"Okay, that face definitely makes me nervous."

A quick glance around the room assures her that Luthor is still there; he hasn't managed to sneak his little self out without their notice. She turns back to Wally.

"But," he brightens a little, "that movie _is_ pretty hot."  
She laughs lightly, and leans in very close, close enough to notice that he smells nice, and kind of spicy, like pine trees.

"You know what else is hot?"

"What?" Wally asks awkwardly, after a pause.

"I have several knives stashed in various places on my body, and I won't hesitate to use them on you if you tell anyone we danced tonight."


	2. Everything Will Break

**A/N: My apologies if you've already read this, but I decided to go ahead and move it into my Spitfire collection for convenience's sake. :)**

* * *

"Gotcha covered, get inside!" Artemis shouted above the furious snowstorm, and the sound of the rapidly approaching enemy. "I'm almost there!"

She notched three arrows and simultaneously let them fly before turning to run for the bioship; the explosions of the airships almost knocking her off her feet.

Faster, faster!

The enemy ship crashed to the ground, and she allowed herself a small smile. Gotcha! But the ferocious winds and the blood pounding in her ears deafened Artemis to the sound of the injured craft revamping it's disintegration ray.

M'gann saw it. "Artemis!" she screamed, "Behind you!"

Wally, close by, turned at the scream, and his heart leaped into his throat. He started to run.

Faster, faster!

Artemis, he saw, had turned back to the ship, bow raised. No! He poured on the speed, but the ray was too quick, and much too powerful to stop. Faster than he could blink, she was gone. Megan was still screaming, but it barely made an impression on him at all. Wally was numb with disbelief for a few seconds, but the icy precipitation snapped him out of it; fast. He started to scream.

"Artemis!"

"Artemis"

He was choking.

He couldn't breathe.

He was tearing apart.

He was-

"Wally?"

He came up from the dream as if from underwater; choking and sputtering. A hand gently touched his cheek; smoothed back his sweaty hair.

"Wally, wake up. It's a dream, it's just a dream."

He opened his eyes blearily to see Artemis, blinking down at him, her hair silky against his face and neck. It... What? It had been so real...

It had been real.

Wally dragged a hand down his face and tried unsuccessfully to steady his breathing. He hated that nightmare. He saw it almost every time he closed his eyes, even after five years.

"You were screaming in your sleep again," Artemis said gently, "What were you dreaming about?"

He shuddered internally. No way he was going to tell her the truth; how could he? It would be cruel to drag her through the pain and fear of the doomed simulation more than he knew she already did.

He hastily rearranged his features into a somewhat-convincing smile.

"Oh, you know, the same old same old. I had that nightmare about the grocery store being out of food again," he said lightly, with an exaggerated shudder. "Sorry to wake you." Artemis raised a suspicious eyebrow. Wally made a big show of yawning and feigned exhaustion.

"Well, I'm going back to sleep," he said in a rush, burying his face in his pillow. Artemis was still sitting up; clearly unconvinced. "You were really screaming," she said dubiously. "Yeah," Wally laughed,"Food shortages are terrible things, huh? Goodnight."

He felt Artemis give in to the comfort of lying down again, and turned his face so she would be unable to see the pain in his face- it would tip her off in an instant. Wally waited a few minutes until he heard her breathing steady in sleep, and slipped quietly out of bed. Artemis stirred, but not quite enough to pull her into waking. He stepped into the hallway and carefully shut the bedroom door with a soft snuck. Padding down the hallway, he found himself heading for the kitchen. Of course. But instead of making a beeline for the fridge, Wally sank into one of the wooden chairs by the kitchen table and rested his head in his hands with a sigh. What was he going to do with himself?

The nightmares had returned with a vengeance. He couldn't keep brushing Artemis off whenever he woke her up with his nightmares -he could tell she wasn't buying his story- and she'd figure it out sooner or later. Wally looked at the clock. 12:37 a.m. He was exhausted, but too afraid to close his eyes to go back to sleep. He ran his hands harshly through his hair and groaned softly. On top of that, he had forgotten to do his Vietnamese Lit assignment.

Wally was supposed to write a poem. He hated poems-well, hated writing them, anyway. And it couldn't be a humorous poem -his specialty- no, it had to be "meaningful." Wally wasn't thrilled by the prospect of sharing personal things like feelings with his Lit professor. Professor Le was a very nice woman, to be sure, but Wally just wasn't comfortable with divulging his innermost thoughts to just anyone. Plus, he wasn't fluent in the language, which made it much harder. Wally laid his head back down on his arms. 12:40. 12:50. 1:00.

He shifted around, desperately trying to stay awake, away from the reach of nightmares, when a thought crossed his mind. Wally sat up. The idea worked it's way inside his brain; a spark of inspiration burst into flame. Looking around the shadowed kitchen, Wally spied his writing notebook. He retrieved it, and picked up a pen on his return trip to the kitchen table. What could it hurt? Artemis would never see it, he promised himself. He couldn't do that to her, but he had an assignment to do, and feelings he could no longer bottle up.

Wally flipped to a blank page, uncapped the pen, and began to write.

That's where Artemis found him in the morning, sleeping deeply with his head buried in his folded arms. She half smiled and dropped a kiss on his head, gently ruffling his hair. He was instantly rouse by the soft touch and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Time izzit?" Wally mumbled blearily. Artemis glanced at the clock. "It's almost 10, Wall-man. You need to put on some normal clothes," she said, looking at his Flash pajamas, "and possibly a shower." She was fully dressed -and ready to go to Vietnames Lit, of course.

Wally stretched and stood up, the paper resting under his arms falling to the floor by Artemis' feet. She leaned over to pick it up, and started to smooth the crumpled paper out. "What's thi-" "Nothing!" Wally said hastily, and quickly took the paper from her hands. He leaned over, kissed her on the cheek, and dashed away to change before class. Artemis just rolled her eyes, opened the cupboards and fridge, and began to pull out the breakfast foods (everything). A few minutes later Wally zipped in, freshly showered, and dressed in normal clothes. They talked and laughed their way through breakfast as usual, until the clock read 10:30. At 10:30, Wally stood, picked up Artemis bridal-style, their style, and ran them both to class.

The folded piece of paper was carefully tucked into his breast pocket, like a folded secret.

A few weeks later, Professor Le announced that he would be handing back multiple graded assignments, as he had promised, and Wally shifted nervously in his seat. He was very nervous. His grades in Vietnamese Lit were average, but one bad grade could do serious damage. He was practically sweating bullets as Professor Le made her way down the aisle, drawing closer to his seat. Finally, she reached his desk, plunking down a small stack of papers. "Well done, Mr. West," Professor Le remarked, and moved on to the student behind him. Wally quickly flipped through the top corners of the papers- B, B, C+, B-, A+...

A+

He had gotten an A+?

Wally had never received a grade better than a B in Vietnames Lit in 4 months... until today.

Which assignment was it? he wondered, sliding it out from its place underneath an essay.

Oh.

That assignment.

The poem.

Wally quickly stuffed the poem into his pocket, and turned to compare grades with his girlfriend.

"I can't believe Le only gave me a B on my essay!" Artemis grumbled. "I pulled an all-nighter for that! I nearly died of Monster overdose!"

Wally was preoccupied, but still managed a halfhearted commiseration. "Hey, it's not so bad," he assured her, "I got a C+!"

"But you're not fluent in the language, Wall-man," she said, and frowned at the paper. Back and forth went their half-serious argument, and, soon enough, class was over. Wally put his arm around Artemis, scooped her up, and raced home with her, nestled close to his heart.

Once home, they settled into their normal after-class routine. Artemis watched T.V. with the dog in the living room, and Wally ate in the adjoining kitchen. Suddenly, Artemis's phone rang from her bedroom dresser. She disappeared into her room to take the call, and Wally seized the opportunity to remove the wadded-up paper from his pocket. Not bothering to unfold it, and more than a little ashamed of it, he tossed it into the wastebasket by the couch. He heard it clang against the sides and knew that it had hit the bottom. Satisfied, he returned to his sandwich making, not realizing that it had, in fact, bounced right off the side. Instead of falling inside, it came to rest in one of Artemis's shoes that lay by the couch where she had quickly discarded them upon arriving home. Artemis returned to the living room and settled herself back on the couch with the sleeping puppy. "Who was that, babe?" Wally asked, his mouth full of food. "Chew and swallow, Wally," Artemis chastised with a smile, "Don't want any choke victims on my hands, now do we?" He swallowed the lump of food in his mouth, which was an effort.

"God, no," he wiped his mouth, "that's not how I wanna go." Artemis laughed, and turned back to the T.V. "It was my mom," she replied, answering his first question, "asking if we still had her copy of The Matrix. She wanted to watch it tonight, and I told her you'd be more than happy to run it over," she said with a cheeky grin.

Wally pretended to frown. "You work me to the bone, woman," he put a hand to his forehead dramatically, feigning exhaustion. "But... because I love you... And your delicious breakfast pancakes... I'll do it."

"Good." Artemis tossed him the DVD. Wally didn't need directions; he had slipped in her bedroom window enough times as a teenager to know where it was.

He put on his shoes.

"Back in a flash!"

She rolled her eyes, but the door was already swinging shut. She watched T.V. for a minute longer; then decided to get herself a drink.

She stood up and started for the kitchen.

"Crap!"

Artemis had almost tripped over one of her own shoes that had been hiding around the corner of the couch. She rubbed her toe; she had stubbed it on the side of the furniture.

She looked down.

A folded piece of paper had tumbled to her feet; presumably one of Wally's many missed baskets.

Sighing, she reached down to place it into the trash can... and froze.

Was that... her name?

On the paper?

Next to the red-circled "A+"?

She unfolded it.

It was in Wally's handwriting.

It was also in Vietnamese.

What?

She started to read.

Artemis

by Wally West

I was afraid to lose you

Afraid to let you go

I was afraid to keep you

To hide you in the snow.

Her breath hitched.

I knew I wasn't fast enough

I was too far away

I knew I couldn't save you

I should have tried anyway.

Artemis paused, her throat closing.

I was afraid you'd gone away

You'd left me all alone

I was afraid you'd left me

Dust to dust, bone to bone.

Her eyes pricked; her mind spun.

I was afraid it was my fault

I should've come for you

I was afraid that you had died-

There was nothing I could do

She made a small sound in the back of her her throat, and swallowed hard.

I see it every night

Every time I close my eyes

I cannot seem to get away

It tears me up inside

The words blurred in front of her eyes. She was reeling, but still she read on.

I put on a brave face for you

I hate to have to lie

But it wasn't real, you aren't dead, and

I'll never say goodbye.

Stunned, Artemis sank onto the comfort of the sofa.

Wally had written this?

Silly, joking, dorky Wally?

About her?

She sat in silence for five, ten, fifteen minutes. Wally still had not returned, but Artemis didn't even notice. Finally, the folded words worked their way inside her and her throat released the tears at the backs of her stormy eyes.

And, when Wally finally returned, that's where he found her.

"Artemis?" he asked frantically, "What's the matter? What's wrong?" He took her gently by the arm. "Are you hurt?"

Trying desperately to get herself under control, she wordlessly held up the paper for him to see. His face darkened. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean… I didn't want…" he swallowed. "I didn't want you to see it."

Artemis wiped at her face with the back of her hand. "When did you write this?" she rasped.

He stared at the floor and rubbed a hand wearily across the back of his neck. "That night… a few weeks ago…" he swallowed again, "when you had to wake me, when-"

"The nightmare," she breathed, "You've been having nightmares about the failed training simulation again, haven't you?"

Unable and unwilling to meet her eyes, Wally nodded.

Artemis's throat released another choked sound as she pulled him close. He sat down with her on the couch, his face buried in her sweet- smelling hair. No words were said; none were needed. Emotionally and physically exhausted, they eventually drifted off to sleep in each other's arms.

And when the morning came, it found them there.

No more nightmares.


End file.
